Activity 4: Martin Luther King Jr and the March on Washington

1. Students read pages 893 - 897 in the America Book2. Watch the video "March on Washington"3. Watch the Brainpop video "Martin Luther King Jr" and then take the linked quiz on Brainpop4. Click on the "I Have A Dream" speech (listed below in the famous speeches portion), after you listen to the speech, write an essay that tells 1) what was the speech saying and 2) what are your personal thoughts each of the sections should be at least 1 full paragraph in answer.5. If there is any time remaining, visit the website linked to the left

Activity 6: Famous Court Cases

​1. Watch the video linked in the picture to the left of the court room gavel2. Students will summarize, compare and contrast the five court cases listed below (Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, Miranda v. Arizona, Tinker v. Des Moines Board of Education, Hernandez v. Texas)3.. After reviewing each case as a group, students will complete the following worksheet (this activity will take two classes to complete)

​Famous Court Cases

Plessy vs. Ferguson

Is Louisiana's law mandating racial segregation on its trains an unconstitutional infringement on both the privileges and immunities and the equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment? Find out by clicking the link to the right.​

Brown vs. Board of Education

Does the segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprive the minority children of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment? Find out by clicking the link on the right and exploring one of America's most influential court cases.

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Miranda vs. Arizona

In Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the Supreme Court ruled that detained criminal suspects, prior to police questioning, must be informed of their constitutional right to an attorney and against self-incrimination. The case began with the 1963 arrest of Phoenix resident Ernesto Miranda, who was charged with rape, kidnapping, and robbery. Miranda was not informed of his rights prior to the police interrogation.

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Tinker vs. Des Moines School Board

The 1969 landmark case of Tinker v. Des Moines affirmed the First Amendment rights of students in school. The Court held that a school district violated students’ free speech rights when it singled out a form of symbolic speech – black armbands worn in protest of the Vietnam War – for prohibition, without proving the armbands would cause substantial disruption in class.

Hernandez vs. TexasPete Hernandez, an agricultural worker, was indicted for the murder of Joe Espinoza by an all-Anglo (white) grand jury in Jackson County, Texas. Claiming that Mexican-Americans were barred from the jury commission that selected juries, and from petit juries, Hernandez' attorneys tried to quash the indictment. Moreover, Hernandez tried to quash the petit jury panel called for service, because persons of Mexican descent were excluded from jury service in this case. A Mexican-American had not served on a jury in Jackson County in over 25 years and thus, Hernandez claimed that Mexican ancestry citizens were discriminated against as a special class in Jackson County.

Famous Speeches

​"I Have A Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr.

While leading the "March on Washington" in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech that defined America and her people and the desire for all human beings to be treated fair and equally.

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"Bullets or the Ballot" by Malcolm X​On April 3, 1964, just one month after announcing he was leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X delivered one of the most powerfully charged messages of the Civil Rights Movement. In this speech, Malcolm X encouraged African Americans to exercise their right to vote, as they had just been granted that right when Congress passed the Civil Rights bill in February of that year; however, he went on to say that if the government should try to stop them from attaining full equality under the law, that it may be necessary for African Americans to take up arms.

​Biographies

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks received many accolades during her lifetime, including the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest award, and the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Award. On September 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the United States' executive branch. The following year, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. legislative branch. In 1999, TIMEmagazine named Rosa Parks on its list of "The 20 most influential People of the 20th Century."

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as the leader of the a Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, he began a long tenure as the spokesperson for nonviolent protest in the Civil Rights Movement. As a Baptist minister, he was a moral leader to the community. Plus, he was charismatic and had a powerful way of speaking. He was also a man of vision and determination. He never stopped dreaming of what could be. ​

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​​Malcolm X

Malcolm X, the activist and outspoken public voice of the Black Muslim faith, challenged the mainstream civil rights movement and the nonviolent pursuit of integration championed by Martin Luther King Jr. He urged followers to defend themselves "by any means necessary." Charismatic and eloquent, Malcolm became an influential leader of the Nation of Islam, which combined Islam with black nationalism and sought to enfranchise disadvantaged young blacks searching for confidence in segregated America.

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Key Events of the Civil Rights Movement

The Montgomery Bus BoycottsThe Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) coordinated the boycott, and its president, Martin Luther King, Jr., became a prominent civil rights leader as international attention focused on Montgomery. The bus boycott demonstrated the potential for nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and served as an example for other southern campaigns that followed.

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The March at SelmaIn early 1965, Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) made Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South. That March, protesters attempting to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities. As the world watched, the protesters (under the protection of federalized National Guard troops) finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery. The historic march, and King's participation in it, greatly helped raise awareness of the difficulty faced by black voters in the South, and the need for a Voting Rights Act, passed later that year.

The Greensboro Sit Ins

On Feb 1,1960, four African American college students sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, and politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When asked to leave, they remained in their seats. Their passive resistance and peaceful sit-down demand helped ignite a youth-led movement to challenge racial inequality throughout the South.

The March on Washington View from the Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument on August 28, 1963 The location on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial from which King delivered the speech is commemorated with this inscription The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was partly intended to demonstrate mass support for the civil rights legislation proposed by President Kennedy in June. King and other leaders therefore agreed to keep their speeches calm, and to avoid provoking the civil disobedience which had become the hallmark of the civil rights movement. King originally designed his speech as a homage to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, timed to correspond with the 100-year centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.

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The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.In early April 1968, shock waves reverberated around the world with the news that U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of powerful words and non-violent tactics such as sit-ins, boycotts and protest marches (including the massive March on Washington in 1963) to fight segregation and achieve significant civil and voting rights advances for African Americans.

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​Civil and Voting Rights ActPresident Johnson issued a call for a strong voting rights law. Congress determined that the existing federal anti-discrimination laws were not sufficient to overcome the resistance by state officials to enforcement of the 15th Amendment. The legislative hearings showed that the Department of Justice's efforts to eliminate discriminatory election practices by litigation on a case-by-case basis had been unsuccessful in opening up the registration process; as soon as one discriminatory practice or procedure was proven to be unconstitutional and enjoined, a new one would be substituted in its place and litigation would have to commence anew.